John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I have to write a first draft with a fountain pen before I type it up as a second. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Writer's block! It doesn't exist. You just long for ideas to go away so you have an idea of peace. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
It is important to find a publisher and equally important not to be noticed until your third or fourth book. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I wrote every day between the ages of 12 and 20 when I stopped because I went to Barcelona, where life was… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
'One Minus One' and 'Barcelona, 1975' are more or less autobiographical. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Anyone who works in the arts knows, if you're writing a novel or a play or anything, you have to be ready… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I am violently untidy. My desk is overcrowded. I write my first drafts in longhand in a long notebook using a plastic… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I write with a sort of grim determination to deal with things that are hidden and difficult, and this means, I think,… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
You have to keep writing. It's almost like practice, almost like tennis, that actually after a few days of not writing, first… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“Q: What's the biggest myth about writing? A: That there's any wildness attached to it. Writing tends to be very deliberate." [… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
When a book comes from the publisher and you see it for the first time... Of course it's not remotely like seeing… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“A novelist's job is almost to be a stupid as possible, except in the cunning moment when you need to structure something,… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“...in one of his Irish Times columns written under the name of Myles na gCopaleen, [Flann] O’Brien offered a service to readers… — Colm Tóibin Copy Share Image
“You have asked two questions, and I will answer them separately,” Gray said. “Trollope writes with precision and feeling about love and… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
“I think fiction lends itself to messiness rather than the ideal, and plays well with the ironies surrounding what happens versus what… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
The problem is once you've written the opening paragraph and worked out how the rest of the story will go in your… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
My first novel was turned down by about twenty publishers over a period of two and a half years. Because my name… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“The only time I've ever learned anything from a review was when John Lanchester wrote a piece in the Guardian about my… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
Roth Unbound is filled with intelligent readings and smart judgments. Because of the author's sympathy and sharp mind, it offers real insight… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
I first went to Barcelona in 1975 after university, and I stayed for three years. I learnt Catalan because that's what everyone speaks in… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Suffering is too strong a word, but writing is serious work. I pull the stuff up from me - it's not as if it's… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Three of my novels and a good number of my short stories are told from the point of view of men. I was brought… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
It may be enough to study history in all its nuance and ambiguity for its own sake. But there is no country free of… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
The only routine I have is that I finish everything I start. I wake up early every day - about 6.30 A.M. - but… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
While historians may go on attempting grand, sweeping and defining narratives, they work in a time when readers know that another narrative always lies… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
John McGovern taught me that it's OK to write repeatedly about the same things. — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Some of our loves and attachments are elemental and beyond our choosing, and for that very reason they come spiced with pain and regret… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
Solitude is good in the evening. Dublin is a quiet city when you get to a certain age, when your friends settle down and… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
“The details of what I told him were with me all the years in the same way as my hands or my arms were… — Colm Tóibín Copy Share Image
I did think of becoming a priest quite late on, when other boys were thinking of knocking over fences and going out with girls.… — Colm Toibin Copy Share Image
![“...in one of his Irish Times columns written under the name of Myles na gCopaleen, [Flann] O’Brien offered a service to readers who owned books but did not open them. For a fee, books would be handled, with passages underlined or spines damaged or words such as ‘Rubbish’ or ‘Yes, but cf Homer, Od…” quote by Colm Tóibin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/586/colm-toibin-3377_books_in-one-of-his-irish-times-columns-writte_684539.jpg)
